PEDRO PASCAL TAKES CHARGE IN‘NARCOS’
The ‘Narcos’ star’s take on the Philippine drug war? ‘I think addiction is a health issue, not a crime issue. It doesn’t have to be a war, because it’s all about money.’
Pedro Pascal is getting a career bump. Having helped take down drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in Season 2 of the Netflix series
Narcos, the Chilean-American actor who plays DEA Agent Javier Peña is now ripe for a lead role in Season 3. But nothing in life is that simple.
“It’s a very ironic promotion,” he says during our interview in Bogotá, Colombia, at the Four Seasons Casa Medina. Pascal is in an open button shirt, hair slightly disheveled, a bit of beard scruff overlaying a casual grin — just a cool bilingual guy back in the country where he’s filmed the past three seasons of the drug war drama. Having walked many crooked paths to catch Escobar — police death squads, CIA complicity, Los Pepes guerrilla violence — his character Peña doesn’t feel like anybody’s hero in Season 3. “I think he’s coming back to Colombia thinking he has to redeem himself in a way, and right the wrongs, and he just opens the doors to more corruption and how to invent new rules to play the game.”
Similarly, Pascal has never played it
the easy way. Remember him as Prince Oberyn in Game of Thrones Season 4, taunting The Mountain during a death match when he could have easily walked away with victory? That didn’t work out so well, I remind him. “Hey, I got my confession,” he says, unrepentant. “And I beat his ass!” True. In Narcos, though, Agent Peña faces a bigger challenge, because the drug war never really ends — only the players change. The fight now focuses on the Cali cartel: a quartet of discreet but noless-deadly drug lords known as “The Gentlemen of Cali.”
To celebrate the third season, Netflix invited media to the world premiere launch in Bogotá, Colombia, which has played host to show creator Eric Newman’s riveting take on the long-running anti-drug campaign there. As soon as your plane banks into Eldorado International Airport, you recognize the show’s highaltitude mountains, swarmed in clouds; you see it reflected in the colorful street murals and cobblestone night scenes of downtown, and in the oft-shown gates of Casa de Nariño, the presidential palace.
In Bogotá, we sat down with the show’s new and returning cast members, directors and producers; but we also learned about a half century of violent conflict between Colombia’s government, military, drug lords, communist guerrillas and the pixie-like machinations of US undercover operations — all in an effort to stop a problem that simply changes hands.
Last year, Colombia’s government signed a peace accord with FARC, the rebels who play a role in the Narcos story, ending 50 years of rebel conflict. So things in Colombia are relatively peaceful. But guerrillas occupy just one of the battlefronts the country has fought on for half a century.
I point out the Philippines is engaged in a somewhat parallel, expanding assault against drug users and dealers that has left thousands of dead in Manila streets. Naturally, Pascal has a personal take on the problem. “I think the drug issue — drug use or addiction — is a health issue, not a crime issue. It doesn’t have to be a war, because it’s an industry, it’s all about money; and the issue of drug use and addiction is about health.”
Admitting that his view “sounds strange coming from someone playing a DEA agent,” Pascal believes decriminalization might work better than violent crackdown. “But that’s exactly it: you’re talking to an actor now, not a DEA agent.”
I can tell Pascal is reluctant to engage in political talk, but Narcos is the kind of show that invites such discussion. Born in Santiago, Chile, in 1975 during Pinochet’s oppressive regime, his parents’ political leanings earned them asylum in the US; they lived in Orange Country, California, and San Antonio, Texas, before Pedro moved to New York in his 20s, waiting on tables and struggling to become an actor. (You might recall him popping up briefly in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Homeland and The Good Wife before his short-butmemorable run on GoT.) Tapped by creator Newman to do
Narcos, Pascal quickly learned this was no ordinary network. He likens each season to shooting “five intense independent films in a row.” “What you’re doing is like a 10-hour movie, right? Ten episodes but releasing them all at once.” Binge-worthy TV was born with Netflix, whose pockets are now deep enough to spend $5 billion on developing new content each year; conventional TV rules no longer apply. “With Narcos we’re dealing with directors that are filmmakers, not TV directors,” notes Pascal. “We’re not even dealing with people who even understand how to shoot a television show.”
Mostly done in Spanish with subtitles, much of the show’s strength draws from its Latin talent — actors, writers, directors — who lend it greater authenticity. Cali-born director Andi Baiz praises Pascal in his role as a Mexican-American law officer: “Pedro is so smart as an actor, he always makes the right decisions and not the obvious ones. He’s one of those actors I want to see more and more of.”
Stepping into the lead was not as scary as it might seem for Pascal. “Look, people are far more interested in the bad guys anyway, so there’s less pressure on me,” he says. “I’d have been terrified playing Escobar — my hat’s off to Wagner (Moura),” who played the world’s most well-known drug lord with lethal intensity for two seasons. “Of course, I’m also the familiar face from Season 1 and 2, so if people don’t like it, it’s my fault.” Having binged on the entire third season of Narcos already, I can assure you: Pascal steps easily into the narrator’s role, giving us crucial historical background on the Colombian drug war and its real-life principals, while also conducting some of the series’ most white-knuckled DEA raids.
I ask Pascal if Netflix has tapped him yet for more shows after Narcos. “They’re not! I think you should start a little campaign, tell the people in the Philippines to say we want more Pedro Pascal.” I agree to do so.
Despite arduous Cali jungle night shoots for Season 3 (“All the bugs come out at night”), Pascal did find new ways to relieve the stress: pulling rank on new cast members Michael Stahl-David and Matt Whelan, who play fresh DEA underlings Chris Feistl and Daniel van Ness. “It was great because I was in a position where I got to treat them like sh*t and they couldn’t do anything about it. It was cool. I loved that,” he says with a chuckle. “I was like, ‘Listen, don’t take it personally, it’s my character. Now go get me some water.’” And would they comply? “Matt Whelan would.” What would you do? “Just shove him. He’s like 6’4”, broad-shouldered, works out, he’s like a statue. And a really, really sweet guy. So when we’d do our raids, we’d have these heavy vests on, and I would just punch him. We’d just be in the middle of a conversation, and I’d go — doosh, doosh! — and he’d go ‘Ow! Ow!’ It was fun.” Where’d you learn that technique from, I ask? “The punching and picking on people?” Pascal smiles and shakes his head. “Hey, man, you gotta pay your dues,” Narcos Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix. Binge away. Follow me on Instagram (@scottgarceau) or Facebook (Scott Garceau).